Leasing-Only vs Full-Service Property Management in Sacramento

Some Sacramento landlords want help finding a tenant and nothing else. Others want to hand over the keys and stop thinking about the property.

Alpha Property Management offers both. The right choice depends on how close you live to the rental, how much time you have, and how many doors you own.

Here is how the two options compare.

What Leasing-Only Covers

Leasing-only is a one-time service. We find and place the tenant. You take over from there.

The service includes:

• Marketing and advertising of your property
• Property showings to potential tenants
• Thorough tenant screening and background checks
• Tenant selection
• Lease preparation
• Move-in inspection and written walkthrough
• Property condition documented with digital photos
• Security deposit collection
• Rent collection

You handle maintenance calls, repairs, vendor payments, accounting, renewals, and any legal issues after move-in.

Placement quality is the same either way. Every applicant submits a full application with a background and credit check at a cost of $51 per applicant, and we publish our rental application requirements so applicants know the standard before they apply.

What Full-Service Property Management Covers

Full-service includes everything above, plus ongoing management for as long as you own the property.

Added on top of leasing:

• Rent and late fee collection with monthly owner statements
• Maintenance coordination and work orders
• 24/7 emergency maintenance response
• Vendor payments and access to our vetted Sacramento vendor network
• Year-end accounting with 1099 reporting
• California rental law compliance supervision
• Supervision of the eviction process
• Yearly inspections
• Move-out inspections, deposit claims, and re-marketing
• 24/7 access to the Owner's Portal for reports and maintenance history

Pricing is flat: $99 per month for a single home, $125 for a duplex, and $225 for a fourplex. Above a fourplex, call for pricing. No commissions and no advertising fees.

Full-service also carries our 12-month tenant guarantee. If a placed tenant is evicted inside the first year, we re-place them with no leasing fee.

The Real Difference: Who Owns the Next 12 Months

Placement is the easy part to outsource. The work after move-in is where landlords burn time.

Ask yourself who takes the call when a water heater fails at 11pm on a Sunday. Who chases rent on the sixth of the month. Who tracks California law changes and updates your lease. Who documents the move-out and defends the deposit claim.

With leasing-only, the answer is you. With full-service, the answer is us.

Our post on how much work it takes to manage your own Sacramento properties breaks down the hours involved.

Leasing-Only Is a Good Fit If You

• Live near the property and are able to reach it quickly
• Own one or two doors
• Have reliable vendors of your own
• Are comfortable with California rental law and lease compliance
• Have time during business hours to answer tenant calls and coordinate repairs
• Enjoy the management side and only want help with marketing and screening

The most common reason landlords choose leasing-only is confidence in their own systems. They know how to run a property. They want a better applicant pool and a faster fill.

Full-Service Is a Good Fit If You

• Own the property from out of the area or out of state
• Own several doors and are growing the portfolio
• Have a demanding job or business
• Have no vendor bench and no interest in building one
• Want protection from compliance mistakes and deferred maintenance
• Have already tried self-managing and lost money on it

We specialize in absentee and long-distance owners. Several of our owners have never set foot in the property since the day they bought it.

Run the Math Before You Decide

Compare the monthly fee against what self-management costs you in practice:

• Hours spent on tenant calls, showings, and repair coordination
• Vacancy days you lose while marketing on your own
• Vendor pricing without an established relationship
• One eviction, which erases years of saved management fees
• Lost rent from late payments you have no system to chase

A single mishandled turnover or one eviction often costs more than a full year of management at $99 per month. Our breakdown of what it costs to hire a Sacramento property manager covers the numbers in detail, and 7 reasons Sacramento landlords need a professional property manager covers the returns.

Start With Leasing-Only, Upgrade Later

You are not locked in. Plenty of owners start with leasing-only, run the property for a year, and move to full-service once they see where their time goes.

The reverse happens as well. An owner who sells down to a single local property sometimes steps back to leasing-only.

Either way, your property gets marketed with zero advertising fees to you and rented in 10 days or less.

Questions Worth Asking Any Sacramento Property Manager

Before you sign with anyone, read 8 questions to ask before hiring your Sacramento property manager and how to compare Sacramento property managers. Flat pricing, screening standards, vacancy timelines, and eviction handling separate managers faster than a sales pitch does.

Talk Through Your Situation

Alpha Property Management has served Sacramento landlords for more than 25 years, covering all of Sacramento County and everything within a 100-mile radius, from Citrus Heights to Elk Grove to Rancho Cordova.

Tell us where the property is, how many doors you own, and how involved you want to be. We will tell you which option fits.

Contact Alpha Property Management or call Sally La Bate, Broker, at (916) 308-5615. See full service details on our owners page, or browse current listings on our rental search page.